Pune blasts: Probe begins; suspect a local tailor, say cops

At 6.30 am on Thursday morning a team of the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) led by a lieutenant colonel visited the blast spot outside McDonald's restaurant on Jangli Maharaj road.

The team collected samples of the explosive that that had gone off outside the restaurant. Preliminary investigations reveal that the explosives contained ammonia and a sticky substance which was detonated using a detonator.

Soon after the NBDC team left, a team of police officials collected the bicycles and dustbins in an investigation van. The bicycles and dustbins would be part of the material evidence, said a police official.

The entire Jangli Maharaj street, a plush locality in Pune, which was cordoned off till morning was later opened for traffic.

A police officer at the site, requesting anonymity said, "The intensity of the blast was so low that it did not even pierce the dustbin in which the explosive was kept. The basket on the bicycles had a minor aberration. The bicycles did not even fall to the ground."

Pune police suspects the role of at least three persons in planting the bombs outside McDonald's restaurant, Bal Gandharva theatre, Dena Bank and City shoes shop. One person identified as Dayanand Patil was injured in the blasts.

The man who was suspected to have carried one of the four bombs that exploded in Pune on Wednesday night and was injured has been identified as a local tailor, the city's Police Commissioner Gulab Rao Pol said.

The persons's name is Patil who is a local resident and working as a tailor in Junglee Maharaj Road, he said.

Pol said that "from the low-intensity blasts, we think there is no involvement of terrorist group. There may be other groups which are not related with terrorist activities", he said.

Asked about the possible motive behind the blasts, he said "the intention was to make mischief and create panic in the mind of the public".